


A Crush, or A Boyfriend

by snapdragonpop007



Series: what's in a family [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto, Family Dynamics, Fluff, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Married Couple, Secret Relationship, and by that I mean Jaden just forgot to tell everybody, just like the russo brothers, we ingore timelines in this house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24112111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snapdragonpop007/pseuds/snapdragonpop007
Summary: Jaden has a boyfriend.Jaden also forgot to tell his parents that he has a boyfriend.
Relationships: Johan Andersen | Jesse Anderson/Yuuki Juudai | Jaden Yuki, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Series: what's in a family [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1731676
Comments: 5
Kudos: 172





	A Crush, or A Boyfriend

“Hey, Jay?”

Jaden slowed, turning his head to glance over his shoulder at Jesse, who had stopped walking entirely. He was looking down at the ground, his fingers playing with the frills of his shirtsleeves. He bit his lip then darted his tongue out to lick the teeth marks. Then he took a deep breath, and Jaden watched the rise and fall of his chest.

“Can I talk to you real quick?” he asked. 

Jaden blinked. “Yeah, sure.” 

He backtracked to Jesse, nodding for the others to keep going. 

He had just finished his duel with Axel and he was exhausted and really should be going to the nurses office, but Jaden was really bad at saying no to Jesse Anderson. 

“What’s up?” Jaden stopped just in front of Jesse and really, it was unfair how pretty his eyes looked. 

They had not known each other for long--a few days, at most. But Jaden was never one who did things slowly, and so when he had a passing thought of how he would maybe like to kiss Jesse the rest of it just took off. And that was fine, Jaden was fine with nursing a crush for a few days before it went away.

It was _fine_.

Jesse looked up at him, then took another deep breath. “I’m gonna--can I do something?”

“I...yeah, I guess.” Jaden titled his head. 

“If you don’t--just, tell me to stop, okay?” 

Jaden couldn’t possibly imagine why he would tell Jesse to stop, but then Jesse lifted his hands to cup Jaden’s cheeks. Then he lurched forward and kissed him, and then Jaden understood perfectly why he would tell Jesse to stop. 

But Jaden didn’t do that. 

Instead he lifted his own hands to tangle his fingers in Jesse’s hair. He was delighted to find that it was just as soft as what he thought it would be, and Jaden hummed happily and pushed himself a little closer. 

\--

It started so quietly that for a while Joey hadn’t even realized anything had started.

“We got a new transfer student.” Jaden had said, and really, after fourteen years of raising this kid Joey really should have realized. 

Joey blinked. “Did ya?”

He and Jaden had been discussing plans for winter break. It was a while away—the school year had only just started, but both Kaiba and Joey needed to have their schedules cleared far in advance if they actually wanted any time off. They also needed to know if Jaden wanted to come home for winter break. Although, going by his little outburst, it seemed like he wasn’t going to.

Joey hadn’t realized it then, but in hindsight it seemed fairly obvious. 

“Uh huh.” Jaden nodded. He wasn’t looking at the computer screen. His gaze was elsewhere, staring at a corner that Joey couldn’t see. “His name is Jesse.” 

Jaden’s expression got very, very soft. 

“Jesse Anderson?” Joey asked, and Jaden nodded again. Kaiba had told Joey about the transfer students already, so he was well aware of Jesse Anderson. “Huh. I’ve heard of him—he’s been in a few tournaments already, hasn't he?” 

“We dueled a few days ago. And he’s been hanging out at the dorm..” Jaden said it with a soft tone, completely ignoring Joey’s question. “He’s sleeping right now, actually. I didn’t want to wake him up.” 

And really, Joey should have known exactly what was happening at that point. If he hadn’t been so exhausted he probably would have, but Joey had just gotten back from an overseas tournament, and he had never been one to handle jet lag well. Kaiba had told him to forgo his weekly video call with Jaden and get some sleep, and Joey had very kindly told him to shove off or he was sleeping on the couch tonight. 

Kaiba had laughed, kissed his husband, then wandered back to his study. 

“Oh. I see.” Joey said, not really seeing anything. 

Jaden hummed and nodded again, still looking at that corner. 

Joey finished up the video call about half an hour later when Jaden had to run off to check on Chazz. 

He sat on the couch, staring at the home screen of his laptop for a while. There was something here that Joey was missing, but he was far too tired to try and cypher it out now. So he stood, set the laptop on the coffee table, then made his way upstairs to crawl into bed with Kaiba with a mental note to question this further in the morning.

He never did, because Kaiba woke him with a soft kiss and well, Joey just couldn’t ignore that, now could he. 

—

Jaden sat at his desk chair, watching Jesse slowly wake up. His laptop was still open and still on the video call screen, and Jaden closed it before turning his attention back to the boy in his bed. 

His dad always called him on Friday’s, which meant it had been a week since Jaden met Jesse Anderson and a day since he had kissed him. 

Jaden vaguely thought that he probably should have told his dad that he was seeing someone, but another part of him was arguing that it had only been a day since Jesse had kissed him and it was way too soon to say anything to anyone. 

He could just tell him parents next week, Jaden reasoned, when things were a little bit more steady with Jesse.

“Jay?” Jesse blinked the last little bit of sleep out of his eyes, pulling the blanket a little closer to his chin. He didn’t sit up. “What are you doing?” 

“I was talking to my dad.” Jaden answered. “Now I’m looking at you.” 

A light pink dusted across Jesse’s cheeks, and Jaden wheeled the chair over so he could kiss it to a darker shade of color. 

—

The next time Joey heard about Jesse Anderson was exactly three days later, and he was _Jess_ now. 

Joey listened to Jaden gush about him and _Jess is a really good duelist Dad, I wish you could have seen his match today and I think we would make a really good tag team—do you think I can ask him to tag team duel with me? I don’t know who we would duel but I mean—on an unrelated note his hair is so soft Dad—_

Joey had listened to his son like the good father he was, and when Jaden hung up about forty minutes later Joey turned right around in the kitchen and looked at Kaiba. 

“I think our son has a crush.” He announced. 

Kaiba stopped stirring the pot of sauce. Joey watched him blink a few times before he looked up, and they stared at each other for a moment before Kaiba blinked again. 

“What?” He asked. 

“I think,” Joey repeated. “Jaden has a crush.”

Kaiba blinked again. “He’s seventeen.” 

“So?” 

Kaiba stared at him, and Joey wondered if he just broke his husband with the news that their son might like someone. It was not the first time Jaden had liked someone—there had been that boy in highschool, some scattered crushes and infatuations here and there, and Joey still very vividly remembered Chazz. 

He and Jaden were still friends, but...well, that had been something. 

“He’s _seventeen_.” Kaiba repeated. 

“That doesn’t mean he can’t have a crush,” Joey came up just in front of Kaiba, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest. “Remember when we were seventeen?” 

Kaiba winced. “That wasn’t a crush that was—“

“Hate sex?”

“...years of repression.” Kaiba finished lamely. 

“Same thing.” Joey grinned, then leaned forward to kiss the tip of Kaiba’s nose. Kaiba frowned, and Joey kissed his nose again. 

“Who even is it?” Kaiba turned back to the saucepan and started stirring it again. 

“Jesse Anderson.” Joey answered, reaching over to turn off the burner and smoothly siding the pan to the back burner. Kaiba was still holding the spoon, and Joey took that from him too. “Apparently his hair is _very_ soft.” 

Kaiba wrinkled his nose. “Oh god.” 

—

“Did you just tell your dad I have soft hair?”

Jesse and Jaden were in the library for some last minute studying. They had crammed themselves onto a beanbag that was tucked away in a little corner, legs thrown over each other and arms wrapped around shoulders and waists. They weren’t getting much studying done, but Jaden had at least made an effort to get them back on track with a phone call to his dad. 

Jesse didn’t remember the question Jaden had asked. It was something about the rules to tag team duels, but the conversation had very quickly dissolved into chit chat. 

Not that Jesse had minded. 

Jaden blinked, then groaned. “I did, didn’t I?” 

“You goof.” Jesse huffed out a laugh, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Jaden’s ear. Then he kissed him, just because he could. 

—

A few days later Kaiba had dropped the paperwork he was holding, startling Joey, who had just walked into the Kaiba Corp office to take him out for lunch.

“Do you think they’re sleeping in the same room?” Kaiba asked. 

Joey, who knew exactly where this was going, frowned. “Ya are not puttin’ in an open door rule at the academy.” 

“Who's going to tell me no? It’s my academy.” Kaiba was picking up his cell phone, and Joey rushed across the room to take it out of his hand. 

“He’s _seventeen_.” That seemed to be both the argument and the explanation lately. 

Kaiba groaned. “Don’t remind me.” 

—

Jaden lay in his bed, half splayed across Jesse and watching Kuriboh and Ruby wrestle across the floor. 

“Should we like, do something?” Jaden asked.

The two duel spirits rolled into the floor lamp. They didn’t knock it over, instead rolling right through it, but Jaden still winced. 

“Nah,” Jesse rolled over to his side, wrapping his arms around Jaden and adjusting him so they were laying next to each other. Jesse tucked Jaden’s head under his chin and pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head. “Now shh, I’m trying to sleep, sweetheart.” 

“Sorry,” Jaden whispered, laughing as Jesse smacked him. 

“Go to sleep, Jay.” 

\--

Joey saw Jesse Anderson once, and it had been on accident.

He had called Jaden for their usually weekly video chat, and about halfway through the call the door to Jaden’s room slammed open and someone came sprinting past. 

Jaden turned around in his seat, eyes locked on something that was off screen. “Jess? You okay, babe?”

“Forgot a towel. Sorry!” Jesse went sprinting by again, offering a wave that Joey barely saw and a hurried hi Jaden’s dad! Then he backtracked, kissed Jaden’s cheek, and took off again. 

Joey didn’t need to ask.

He still did anyway.

“Is there something you need to tell me, Jay?”

Jaden looked back at him. His eyes were wide and his cheeks were red. “Um—I was gonna say something, I swear—“ 

“If he makes ya happy, kiddo, I don’t care.” Joey shook his head and smiled. He wasn’t surprised. Joey had figured something was going on between the two of them, what with the amount of times Jaden gushed about Jesse. “Ya had better tell your Otosan, though.”

Jaden stared at him with an open mouth. “ _Fuck--_ ”

Joey laughed. 

\--

Jesse came back from his shower just as Jaden closed out of the call with his dad, hair damp and plastered to his face and still smelling of the hair dye he had just washed out. His roots needed touching up and the color itself had faded, and Jaden was always looking for excuses to play with Jesse’s hair. 

His own hands were stained teal now, as was a patch of skin on his collar bone. 

“You alright, sweetheart?” Jesse cocked his head as Jaden whirled around in the chair to look at him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” 

“I forgot to tell my parents.” Jaden said. “About us.”

Jesse blinked, then laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> gx makes me so god damn sad, so here's some very self indulgent fluff to cheer myself up
> 
> (Jesse absolutely dyes his hair and you can fight me on that)


End file.
